B.C. Liberals to report donors sooner

The B.C. Liberal Party will begin voluntarily reporting its political donations in January, with reports every two weeks in the months leading up to next year’s provincial election.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong said legislation to improve reporting of corporate, union and personal donations won’t be ready in time, so Premier Christy Clark has asked the party to begin reporting as close to “real time” as is practical.

The current annual reports of donations leave voters in the dark about the most intensive fundraising period until after elections are over.

De Jong announced the change as the legislature was being called back to give Vancouver authority to put additional property tax on vacant homes. NDP leader John Horgan said reporting big donations isn’t the issue, banning them is, and the government could do that any time.

“It’s nonsense, absolute nonsense, for Mr. de Jong to call us back in the middle of summer to address tweaking around the edges of the real estate crisis, and then say we’re too busy to bring in legislation to ban big donations from unions and corporations,” Horgan said.